Commission approves MCTA director position

• Approved, 3-0, a personnel requisition for a new Moffat County Tourism Association director.

County officials said the group plans to advertise for the position this month and conduct interviews in February.

The MCTA director is a part-time job paid out of the county’s lodging tax fund, which provides all MCTA funding.

The commission did not address a previous request from the MCTA board to expand its membership from seven active members to 11. That request was rescinded after a vote from the board Monday.

The MCTA board voted in December to change its bylaws to include 11 members after the commission appointed new board members for 2010, who will take their positions next week.

As one of its last acts, the current MCTA board voted to change its bylaws back to seven full-time members after commissioners Audrey Danner and Tom Mathers attended a special MCTA meeting and said they would not consider expanding the board to include more people.

• Approved, 2-1, a bid from The Print Shop, which is owned by the Daily Press, to provide all of the county’s stationary needs in 2010. Items include letterhead, envelopes and single and carbon copy forms, among others.

The total price is based on how many orders the county makes throughout the year.

The Print Shop was selected over two other companies from out of the area, though there was some discussion about which one had the lowest bid.

Because prices are dependent on the county placing multiple orders, there was not an easy way for county officials to immediately compare pricing estimates.

Commissioner Tom Gray said he would prefer to table the decision on stationary bids until next week so officials could create new pricing sheets, which Commissioner Tom Mathers said he agreed with.

However, Commissioner Audrey Danner had made a motion to award the bid to The Print Shop before the discussion on pricing, so the commissioners had to take a vote.

Danner and Mathers voted to award the bid to The Print Shop, with Gray voting in opposition.

Mathers said afterward he thought the vote was for something else and he didn’t mean to award the bid to The Print Shop without a further review.

However, he said after the meeting he did not plan to request the matter be put on the commission’s agenda next week for more discussion and a possible repeal of the bid award.

• Approved, 3-0, a motion to forego the usual bid process and appoint the Daily Press to be the county’s official newspaper of record in 2010.

Although the county did advertise and solicit bids for the contract, the Daily Press was the only bidder. The commissioners said it is policy to formally dismiss the bid process if there was one bidder, even if the contract was sent out to bid.